Dan Neil Interview

"Our Show Is The View For Douches"

Quick Bio

Automotive journalist Dan Neil is as opinionated and outspoken as any of his peers, yet he opines without blunt-force drama, wielding an acerbic wit that makes him the thinking man’s smart-ass. The Pulitzer Prize winner has written for AutoWeek, Car and Driver, LA Times, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

Neil now joins comedian Adam Carolla, former NBA champion John Salley and TheSmokingTire.com founder Matt Farah to co-host what he endearingly calls “The View for douches.” To the rest of us, it’s known as The Car Show, with insightful and frequently irreverent takes on all things automotive, Wednesday nights at 10 ET on Speed TV. We caught up with Neil between tapings to learn how it came together, what goes on behind the scenes and his favorite exotic sports car.

How did The Car Show gig come about?

Dan Neil: I’d been approached a few times and had done one or two other pilots when Top Gear USA called. [Then-executive producer] John Hesling wanted to cast me, so I had a day with Jeremy [Clarkson from Top Gear UK], I had a day with Adam Carolla, we did some screen testing, and then NBC execs elected to get rid of me. They made that pilot, and it didn’t get picked up by NBC anyway. So that came and went, then Top Gear USA called me again when they got the deal with History Channel. I’m not sure if they wanted to cast me or if they wanted to have me write. In either event, I was like, “No thanks.” So I thought nothing more about it.

Then a guy named David Hill at FOX Television in Los Angeles called me and said, [with Australian accent] “Oy. I’m gonna make you a star!” So we chatted about it and he said, “You have potential in television, but civilians have a hard time with this. You need an apprenticeship; we’re going to teach you how to do television.” So they gave me the show Ticket to Ride, and I did learn a lot. When I heard they were going to do The Car Show, we discussed it, and I signed on.

Had you worked with any of your Car Show panelists in the past?

DN: No. I’d only met Carolla that one time.

You four are off to a Le Mans start with your chemistry. It all seems to gel really well, especially considering the distinct personalities.

DN: I think it does, and I like those guys a lot. They all bring a lot to the table, and the casting is right. We have different things to say and different perspectives. If you had four guys who were all, “CAFE sucks! V-8 power! Stick shifts!” -- that would get boring really quick. And I’m there as sort of the antagonist, the straight man in many respects, and I am really cool with that.

What are you hearing from fans so far?

DN: A lot want to compare us to Top Gear. We’re not in competition with them. We’d be lucky to be in competition with them. There is no way that we could do our show with the same elaborateness. That thing is a machine. It’s an institution, and they have a huge budget. [UK edition executive producer Andy Wilman’s] formula has been repeated many times and many ways, but it comes down to three words: ambitious but shit. [Laughs] That’s what he told me,and that’s what he tells everybody. Have the guys try to do something amazing and have it fall apart on them in a colossal way. Our show is The View for douches. It’s for guys obsessed with cars, having conversations like you have with guys at any bar, race track or auto show.

Take us through a day on set.

DN: For me it starts with wardrobe. Everybody else can just wear what they brought, but I have to dress up because that’s part of my character.

You mean those aren't your everyday clothes?

DN: [Laughs] In Season 2, I’m definitely getting a wardrobe budget! And it’s hilarious to have people bag on me because I’m a dandy or a fop. Talk about mistaking the artificial for the real. But that’s OK. We want them to think that I’m a stuffy Wall Street Journal reporter. So, from wardrobe, we go to makeup -- which is still a pretty odd experience for any heterosexual male -- then the cameras roll.

One of the things I asked for after the pilot was that we needed more people in the audience to create that critical mass of laughter and energy. So it’s a good-size audience, and they’re close enough that you can feed off their energy. You can tell that happens, and we can relate to the audience. When you first start a show, you wind up with audiences at random. They may not be car people or heard of anybody on the show. They’re just there from out of town to see a show. If the show keeps going, you start to get your audience, and that makes a huge difference.

It's like the pilot audience for Monty Python's Flying Circus being full of little old ladies expecting to see an actual circus.

DN: That’s right, and it’s hard to describe the chill that descends on people who are not getting it. But our show is still relatively conventional and non-subversive. God willing, we’ll change that later.

What would be the biggest surprise to viewers about The Car Show production, whether in the studio or on location?

DN: The vibe among hosts is as genuine as it seems on-screen. We really are having a good time. Interaction is really spontaneous and improvised, and more of that goes on as the season progresses. There’s not a lot of line flubbing either, because we do so little teleprompter reading. I think they’d also be surprised the studio’s so small, although we can get cars in, and that was a major consideration.

What's your favorite car that you've owned so far, and what would you like to own?

DN: A Fiat 131 sedan -- that was back in the ‘70s. I’d like to have a Citroën DS 19 Decapotable... an Aston Martin V8 Vantage from the late ‘70s, an Cord 810 Westchester, an early series Lamborghini Espada, a Facel Vega, and a ’63 Split Window Corvette, which we had on the set the other day. It’s kind of a crap car in a lot of ways, you know, it’s got wheel covers and fake hood louvers, but it’s just devastating to look at.

You know, I realized all the cars on my list handle like shit, so I don’t know what that’s about. But these cars are ships in a bottle. You work on them. You tinker with them. You spend hours quietly cursing to yourself and your ancestors. There are precious few supercars on my list. I’ve learned the best kind of exotic sports car is somebody else’s exotic sports car.